Today when Kai came to catch me I decided to do a little test, so instead of haltering him I asked him to follow at liberty to the gate. We were very close to the gate when Kai took off back to the hay. He turned and watched me run back to the hay net.

He caught me again and this time, he followed me to the gate and let me halter him without leaving. How interesting. I wonder how it will go the next time we play this game.

In the indoor arena we played with seeking the jump at liberty. Kai tried to go around the barrel and go in the 6' gap between the wall and the barrel instead of jumping once. I blocked him with my stick and backed him up and then guided him over the jump with the halter and then asked him again at liberty right away. When he did I gave him a cookie and groomed and tacked him up.

I sent him over the jump while wearing the bareback pad to make sure he was all good before mounting. Then we did lateral flexion. Kai was noticeably softer to the right than he has ever been. I think Kai had finally softened mentally to me and that is why he is flexing easier now. I had always waited as long as it took for him to soften but he always took a little while to warm up when flexing laterally. He is finally finding the softness right away.

Kai leaned forward in anticipation for me to ask him to walk on. So I waited for him to relax and then backed him up instead. I backed him to the middle of the arena and then started working on yields. I asked him to yield his HQ and Kai walked forward instead of thinking about what I was asking him. I bumped him on the nose and he yielded.

We did both sides making sure he did not go forward when I stopped asking him. Then we did FQ yields. I would ask him for a quarter of a circle and then back him up and we kept doing this until he stopped assuming that we would go forward right after finishing the yield.

Then I asked him to yield his FQ faster for a few steps for fun. I did some "hurry up and wait" and then went on the rail to quickly work on walk to trot transitions. When he did some nice ones we quit so it wouldn't become a drill.

Next we did some bending circles focusing on soft changes of direction at the trot. I can get Kai soft on the circle but when we change directions he tends to get super bracy.

Kai was not trying to be soft so I gave him some bumps in the beginning but he very quickly softened. I also worked on pushing his ribs out and getting him responsive to my leg as well.

We quit pretty quickly as he gave me everything I asked him almost right away for the entire ride. After untacking him I allowed him to roll and I gave him lots of treats when he was on his side.